Page Three

Japanese father thanks Taiwanese man for assisting son before death

Japan Today
Date: June 23, 2018

A Japanese man flew to Taiwan on Friday to personally thank a Taiwanese man who rendered assistance to his son after he was fatally struck by falling rocks while mountain biking at a national park in eastern Taiwan last year.

Ryoichi Shirai thanked Huang Po-hsien for coming to the aid of his son, Hiroyuki, while he lay bleeding on the ground after the accident on Sept 9 last year in Taroko National Park.

“If I saw somebody lying on the ground seriously injured, I might have fled or not known what to do,” Shirai said.

Hiroyuki was familiarizing himself with the route of an international mountain biking contest scheduled for the following day at the park when the accident happened at the entrance of a tunnel.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan EPA denies tenfold increase in plastic waste imports from U.K.

Imported trashed used in recycling: EPA

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/06/23
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said

Plastic waste imports from the UK rose 2.46 times, the EPA says (image from Pixabay).

Saturday that imports of plastic waste from Great Britain recently rose by less than 2.5 times instead of the tenfold rise reported by the media.

As China cracked down on the import of waste from mostly western countries, the flow was redirected toward other destinations, including Taiwan and Southeast Asia, recent reports said.

However, the EPA said that in the period from January to May, Great Britain exported 14,700 tons of plastic trash to Taiwan, compared to 6,000 tons during the same period last year, an increase by a factor of 2.46, and not a tenfold rise.

According to the EPA, the original report in the Financial Times of London had compared the highest monthly import level for this year with the lowest from last year instead of comparing two similar periods, the Central News Agency reported.
[FULL  STORY]

Golden Melody Awards: Veterans take top awards

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/24
By: Hsu Hsiao-ling and Ko Lin

Taipei, June 24 (CNA) Music veterans Eason Chan (陳奕迅) and Lala Hsu (徐佳瑩) on Saturday took top awards at the 29th Golden Melody Awards, Taiwan’s biggest music awards event.

Hong Kong singer Chan took home the awards for best Mandarin Male Vocalist and the Album of the Year, which he also won in 2003.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese singer-songwriter Hsu took the Best Album in Mandarin and the best Mandarin Female Vocalist that day.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese told to watch out after New Zealand crash

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 24, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday urged people overseas to be more mindful of their personal safety, after a young Taiwanese woman on a working holiday visa in New Zealand was reported killed in a car accident.

A report in the New Zealand Herald on Friday said that the victim was a 25-year-old Taiwanese woman surnamed Hsieh (謝) who had been living in Wanaka on the country’s South Island.

Hsieh was driving near a one-lane bridge in Wanaka at about 11:20am on Thursday when her car crashed, leaving her dead, but her passenger with only scratches and bruises, the newspaper reported, adding that local police were investigating the accident.

Upon learning of the fatal crash, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New Zealand immediately contacted Hsieh’s family in Taiwan and helped them arrange a flight the next day, Ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said.    [FULL  STORY]

Tainan Sees Second Japanese Encephalitis Case

ICRT Radio News
Date: 2018-06-22

Tainan has confirmed its second Japanese Encephalitis case of the year.

The victim is a 57 year old woman who started displaying symptoms early this
month, and who is currently in intensive care.

City health officials suspect she contracted the disease close to home, as
she lives close to the first confirmed victim in Tainan.

There are also various livestock farms nearby as well.

Health officials warn that it is now the peak season for the disease, with
infected mosquitoes often breeding in farms and rice paddies.

They urge people to avoid such areas, especially around dawn and dusk, when
the mosquitoes are most active.

Japanese Encephalitis has a death rate of 20 to 30 percent, and there is
currently no cure for the disease.    [FULL  STORY]

Sociology scholar to become MAC deputy minister

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-06-22

National Tsing-hua University sociology professor Chen Min-chi has been appointed as deputy minister of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC). The MAC is the government’s top China policy-making body.

Chen has a PhD in sociology from Yale University and specializes in economic sociology and industries favored by Taiwanese businesspeople based in China.

The government is planning to reorganize the MAC. Under its plan, there will be one minister and three deputy ministers.

Meanwhile, Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Yao Jen-to has been made vice chair of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). The SEF is a semi-official organization in charge of cross-strait civilian exchanges. As an advocate of Taiwan independence, Yao called his post a “new challenge.”    [FULL  STORY]

Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui arrives in Japan’s Okinawa

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also visiting the island

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/06/22
By:  Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) flew to the Japanese

Ex-President Lee Teng-hui (center, in wheelchair) on his way to Okinawa Friday. (By Central News Agency)

island of Okinawa Friday to attend Sunday’s unveiling of a monument to Taiwanese soldiers who died in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.

Lee was born during the 1895-1945 Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and has close links with the country. Since leaving office in 2000, he has visited Japan nine times, the Central News Agency reported.

He was spotted in a wheelchair at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Friday afternoon on the way to board his flight. Responding to questions from reporters, the 95-year-old former head of state said he was feeling well. A doctor and a nurse were part of his entourage for the trip, according to CNA.

While he is on the island, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will also be visiting, but it is not yet clear whether the two will meet. Abe recently thanked Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen for expressing concern over last Monday’s earthquake in Osaka.
[FULL  STORY]

U.S. voices concern over attempts to change cross-strait status quo

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/06/22
By: Chiang Chin-yeh and Y.F. Low

Washington, June 21 (CNA) A U.S. official expressed concern Thursday over

Alex Wong (CNA file photo)

attempts by China to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, as seen in Beijing’s escalating efforts to suppress Taiwan internationally.

Alex Wong (黃之瀚), deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, pointed to recent actions taken by China to squeeze Taiwan’s international space to make contributions that benefit the international community, such as offering humanitarian assistance and taking part in the World Health Assembly.

“Stability in the region is dependent on the status quo across the strait. So the U.S. government is very concerned about any attempts to disturb that status quo,” Wong said during a discussion on U.S. strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific held as part of the annual conference of the Center for a New American Security.
[FULL  STORY]

President vows to work with US despite pressure

STANDING FIRM: Tsai said that China’s attempts to undermine regional stability are not welcomed, and its bullying would not stop Taiwan from ‘reaching out to the world’

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 23, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday vowed to continue working with the US to

President Tsai Ing-wen, right, shakes hands with a member of the Washington-based Brookings Institution at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei yesterday.  Photo: CNA

contribute to peace and prosperity in the region amid the growing threat posed by China.

“China’s bullying will not alter Taiwan’s resolve to reach out to the world,” Tsai said when meeting members of the Washington-based Brookings Institution, including former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush, who is now a senior fellow with the think tank, at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei.

“As you have all noticed, changes are taking place in the Asia-Pacific region, such as in the Taiwan Strait, South China Sea and on the Korean Peninsula,” Tsai said.

It is regrettable that China is also stepping up its pressure on Taiwan, as seen by its unilateral launch of the northbound M503 flight route, sending fighter jets and military vessels to circle Taiwan, forcing foreign enterprises to designate Taiwan as a province of China on their Web sites and preventing Taiwan from participating at world bodies, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Video clip gives insider’s look at Panama Canal crossing

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-06-21

Have you ever seen a Panama Canal crossing at night? A new time-lapse video posted on the Taiwan Military Spokesman Facebook page offers an insider’s look, cutting travel time from eight hours down to less than a minute.

What does it take to cross the Panama Canal? The Taiwan Navy’s Dunmu Fleet begins at the Pedro Miguel Locks where inspectors board the ships… then Sailors use inflatable fenders to protect the boat. Water is pumped into the locks to bring the fleet up to the correct elevation before it can continue.    [FULL  STORY]